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Pitching with Pritch...Following the favorites

By Larry Pritchett

Past PCHS Activities Director

The NBA playoffs are going and boy are they exciting. I can’t believe that I thought that the NBA wasn’t fun to watch. Most of the first round games have been really close and there has been great hustle, lots of offense, great officiating and coaching. No, I can’t do this. The games are close but still uninteresting. The players hustle once in awhile and some of the teams haven’t even been close to playing defense. The officiating at times is suspect. Those times are any time the clock is running. Some of the “stars” can do anything and some of them that you would think would be considered “stars” really don’t get the same treatment, especially on the road. I watched Kevin Garnett of the Celtics and I have nothing against the Celtics, go against some poor no-name on the Knicks and after repeatedly banging into the Knick with a shoulder three times, got him dislodged from the floor and probably from any feeling from the shoulders down and then get a layup. The announcers thought it was a great “offensive move” and they were correct, it was offensive. In the same game you got to watch Rajon Rondo get 30 points and the Knicks must have thought that it was against the rules to guard him if he got into the lane. At one time Rajon had 18 points and hadn’t scored outside the paint. He is a point guard! There was a time if the point guard got into the paint that many times and scored a “big” would almost tear his arms off and discourage that move to the basket, but the NBA has taken a more hard core line against intentional, concussion causing, fouls now so that doesn’t happen as much and that is no doubt a good thing. I don’t care who wins the NBA but if I had to pick a favorite team, I would stick with my old favorite the Bulls. Growing up I was a Celtic fan and the reason was that in the old days, when you only got three stations and the test pattern on your TV’s, and only one game a week, we got the Celtics. When my sons were growing up and Jordan was playing, we became Bulls fans. If next year they have a “lock out” in the NBA, I might not even notice it. Red-White Game It appeared that the Huskers scrimmage last week pointed out that there are maybe some budding stars on the squad. At least there should be some competition for playing spots come next fall. The defense is being touted as being better than ever and that will be a good thing, but I hope that the offense gets much better than it has been because we will still need to score in the Big 10 to win games. I think the Huskers will have a good season, but it will be a struggle. The schedule in the Big 10 is a tough one, but I think the coaching staff will be ready for the challenge. Bob Knight Apologizesto Kentucky First of all, I have always liked Bob Knight for his coaching. His system was outstanding. His coaching methods, however, were not adaptable at the high school level or maybe at most college or universities. With that said, it can be said that words you hardly ever see in the same sentence that has something to do with Coach Knight is Bob Knight and apology. Bob Knight did issue an apology to Coach Calipari and Kentucky for blasting them for the number on “one and done” players that are recruited to Kentucky. I don’t see that as a problem caused by Calipari, but more the NBA rule that a player must be 19 before he can be drafted. That has created the “one and done” problem. Calipari can coach, because he takes the young kids each year and they are very competitive. But Coach Knight admitted that he should not have singled Calipari and Kentucky out because there are other schools that recruit players knowing that they will probably be around just one year. Knight said that he was trying to point out that the one and done situation is hurting college basketball. I don’t think it takes a Rhodes Scholar to see that because I think the same thing. Although I was a Rhodes Scholar of sorts, I think it was a “dusty roads” thing though. On the serious side of the topic, I think it hurts the college ball game and it dilutes the pros with players that are not always ready physically or mentally to handle the NBA.